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Monday, November 30, 2015

I know I know it's been a while. The hiatus I put the Romance Bookie on has done me a lot of good; that being said though I have definitely missed reading!!

We are less than a few weeks away from The Romance Bookie's FIVE YEAR Blogaversary!!! I can't believe it's been 5 years! Wow, what a ride it's been! Not only was my world turned upside down by books and meeting such incredible authors and people in the book world, but also my overall life has changed so much!

Next month, I will be letting go of one of my jobs, because life is crazy with two jobs, five classes, and spending time with my loved ones. I will have some much needed time off, during the winter break. First time in three years, where I will have weekends off! Oh goodness, am I excited about that!!

In those five years, I met the most amazing man ever! We have been together now two and a half years (December 6th), and moved in together this past summer. To say things are going well, would be an understatement! He is absolutely incredible! The best thing that has ever happened in my life! He has literally made everything so much better!

I officially also only need three more semesters to graduate with my bachelors! My semester ends in two weeks, and if all goes well for the next two weeks I will finishing this semester with ALL As in my five classes!!! I know still two weeks to go, so I shouldn't get too excited, but I am pretty stoked, because I have never finished a semester will ALL As! And this was my first semester at a University!!!!

While yes, I will admit, I have not finished or even started a book in a few months, I can say I have received an early copy of a much-anticipated book that isn't set to be released until early February, by an absolute favorite author of mine that I have mentioned once or twice on The Romance Bookie ;). I will be devouring that one as soon as the semester ends in a couple of weeks.

I am also hoping to receive two other books for Christmas this year (the new Ten year anniversary of Twilight, which features a new story where Edward and Bella have switched roles! and a copy of the illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone)! And I really want to get Winter by Marissa Meyer ASAP! I would have gotten it yesterday, but unfortunately they didn't have any of those signed copies at my local Barnes and Noble, so I decided to wait, and instead get my brother the signed edition of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School for Christmas!

So no worries, I haven't given up on reading...just insanely busy with life, and have honestly gotten to the point where I am enjoying life outside of books right now. I've had this new obsession where during my free time I go shopping for new clothes. It's a serious problem! I am running out of hangers!!!!

But anyway, you will hear back from me soon...at the latest for the 5 year blogaversary of The Romance Bookie! :)

Hope all of you (that celebrate it) had a fabulous Thanksgiving, filled with loved ones! And that you have a wonderful Holiday Season!

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Hello Everyone! Another review for you! Storm Siren is a YA Fantasy Novel that I had been keeping my eye on for a little bit. I had heard good things about it and finally decided to read it while I was on vacation.

"I raise my chin as the buyers stare. Yes. Look. You don't want me. Because, eventually, accidentally, I will destroy you."
In a world at war, a slave girl's lethal curse could become one kingdom's weapon of salvation. If the curse-- and the girl-- can be controlled.

As a slave in the war-weary kingdom of Faelen, seventeen year-old Nym isn't merely devoid of rights, her Elemental kind are only born male and always killed at birth - meaning, she shouldn't even exist.

Standing on the auction block beneath smoke-drenched mountains, Nym faces her fifteenth sell. But when her hood is removed and her storm-summoning killing curse revealed, Nym snatched up by a court advisor and given a choice: be trained as the weapon Faelen needs to win the war, or be killed.

Choosing the former, Nym is unleashed into a world of politics, bizarre parties, and rumors of an evil more sinister than she's being prepared to fight...not to mention the handsome trainer whose dark secrets lie behind a mysterious ability to calm every lightning strike she summons.

But what if she doesn't want to be the weapon they've all been waiting for?

Set in a beautifully eclectic world of suspicion, super abilities, and monsters, Storm Siren is a story of power. And whoever controls that power will win.

Erin's Thoughts:

I had a lot, a lot of issues with this book. In fact, I'm not exactly sure where to start...The characters were all caricatures. They were flat, they seemed very contrived, and they weren't convincing to me as real people with depth. All of them were so ridiculous. I did not connect to any of the character and had a hard time getting through a lot of the book because I was annoyed with pretty much all of them.

Nym is one of those characters who are special for special's sake. The only thing that made her unique from other people was her special ability. Other than that there was nothing to distinguish her from other characters. But one of the biggest problems I had with Nym was that she only liked Eogan because he was attractive. She refers to him as "unreasonably attractive" through out the book and except for the fact that he is good-looking, I don't think there was a reason why she liked him. That right there is one of my biggest pet peeves. I really dislike the idea that someone falls in love with someone else because of how they look. Sure, there are people like that in the world, but it seems very superficial to me and very fake to me. It also felt like instal-love to me: Nym falls in love with Eogan after seeing him one time, because, you guess it! He's pretty!

Another problem I had was that there wasn't a true villain. Was it her slave-master Adora? Was it the Draewulf (I'm sorry, I still don't even know what that is)? Was it the king of the land they were at war with? Who were they supposed to be fighting? Because there wasn't one specific enemy, the entire plot felt very unfocused.

Minor things that annoyed me a lot:
-All the weird curse words ("What in the hulls?, "Son of a bolcrane", "Mother of Kracken"). It just became way too much after a while and really started to bug me.
-Colin: He's a seventeen year old boy who is bald. Why is he bald? There was no explanation why. Also he's just ridiculous and not in a good way. He literally kisses his biceps and struts around the ladies with no shirt on, YET is shown to be incredibly deep and meaningful. Ugh.
-Breck: I could not get a sense of her character. She has this incredibly thick accent that, while it didn't bother me at first, once everything else started bugging me, this also did as well. She was just an odd character that I felt had no purpose except to serve this one twist in the book.

Overall Rating:

I would give it zero, but unfortunately we only go to 1 bookie.

Like I said, I was very annoyed with many things and after a while, I just found myself skimming. I did make it to the end of the book, but I was increasingly getting annoyed and frustrated with this book. I did not find a single thing that I liked about this book and it's kind of one of those books that I could rant about for days (I won't though :)). The one word that I would use to describe this book is "lackluster". I think that about sums it all up. No surprisingly, I will not be reading the next two books in this series.

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About Me

Hello My name is Mandy! I am the founder and creator of The Romance Bookie, which I started in December of 2010. Ever since my freshman year of high school, reading has been a huge part of my life. While I've grown as a person over the past couple of years, and reading hasn't become the #1 priority it used to be, it still is a huge part of my life, and is part of the reason I am the person I am today.
I am always looking forward to connecting with other readers, and have met some amazing people because of The Romance Bookie, so anytime you're looking to talk about books or need a recommendation, I'll be happy to give it! My email is: romancebookie@yahoo.com :).
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